


Safe Places

by PickledDeath



Category: Marvel, Young Avengers
Genre: Civil War (Marvel), M/M, On Hiatus
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-05-15
Updated: 2012-06-15
Packaged: 2017-11-05 10:42:21
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 9,919
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/405511
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PickledDeath/pseuds/PickledDeath
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Superhuman Registration Act has been put in place and the Young Avengers are the first to be arrested. In a surge of nervous energy, Billy Kaplan (Wiccan) turns their otherwise uneventful arrest into a fiasco. Billy and Teddy escape and find themselves deep in the North American woodlands, but have no idea as to the whereabouts of their teammates. Stranded and too terrified to go anywhere else, the boys must wait and hope that things will turn out for the best. [On Hiatus]</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

William "Billy" Kaplan had only just turned sixteen when he was arrested for being in violation of the Superhuman Registration Act. He had never driven a car, tasted alcohol, or even make it past first base with his boyfriend, yet he felt like his whole life was ending.

There were floodlights and headlights everywhere, lighting up the night all around them and dulling the heavy canopy of the night sky above them. Billy could feel his heart pounding in his throat as a fully outfitted officer fitted handcuffs over his hands. They were ridiculous contraptions that covered most of his arm from the bottom half of his forearm down. They were meant to be guaranteed against super-strength and were obviously overkill for the magically inclined boy, but the officers had protocols that they weren't about to violate just days after the Registration Act went into affect.

Billy's friends and allies were standing around him, fitted with similar handcuffs and collars that were meant to suppress their innate abilities.

Billy was already collared. The collar was heavy where it sat on Billy's shoulders, pressing them down and pulling him into a slight stoop. He could feel the strength of the collar pressing in on him, pushing back on the energy inside him that he was now always aware of. Billy could feel the edges of the collar's control, could feel the flaws in it's construction, but he dared not make any use of this knowledge. He was still too terrified to take any action or make any decisions about what to do.

Nobody was speaking, with the exception of the barely suppressed murmurs of the officers standing off to the side.

Worried, Billy shot a glance over to Teddy, who was standing beside him in his Hulkling form. His head was bowed and his eyes downcast, just like Eli, Kate, and Cassie. Like the others, Teddy didn't seem to be panicked or angry, only resigned and noble with the huge metal contraptions encasing his neck and hands.

Billy straightened his back a little after looking at his companions. He didn't want to be the weak one. He wanted to be as strong as everyone else.

With a grunted word, they were moved into the back of a van and settled down onto two narrow and uncomfortable benches facing one another. Two officers took up positions towards the front of the van with their weapons ready. Billy hoped that the weapons were only for show, even though he knew they were probably strong enough to take down even the strongest super heroes.

Billy took a deep breath and tried to settle his frantic mind for what he was sure would be a long ride ahead. He had never been arrested before. To his knowledge, none of them (with the exception of Tommy), had ever had any trouble with the law. When all of them had been confronted with officers of the law during a regular patrol, they had been so flabbergasted that none of them had put up a fight.

But, now Billy wished that they had.

He worked hard to put forth a relaxed and untroubled expression while his heart worked overtime in his chest. He could feel his hands sweating inside their metal constraints and was glad that his red sort of cloak covered his neck, because he could feel the veins there jumping in cords.

This was far beyond any trouble that they might have gotten into with their parents when first trying to start up the Young Avengers. Billy could feel his stomach start to do back flips as he thought of how his mother would react to having a criminal, maybe even a felon, for a son. Billy couldn't even bring himself to think of what his father might do. They didn't even know that he was a superhero.

Billy tried not to think of Cassie's parents, but the thoughts came unbidden. Her step-father was a police officer. Did that mean things would go easier for her or harder? What about Kate? She didn't really have any super powers, maybe they would let her off on a technicality. He knew that her father was rich, so that probably meant he was powerful as well.

Billy's throat clenched as he thought of Ted and his own future. He was a mutant, sort of, and he doubted he would get any kind of leniency. His only real hope would be if the Xavier Institute would step up and fight registration on behalf of mutant rights, but there was still no guarantee that these rights would apply to him. Ted was technically the prince of an alien nation, so they probably wouldn't hurt him, but they couldn't turn him over to either the Kree or the Skrulls without compromising the Super Skrull's espionage mission.

'I wish this weren't happening,' Billy thought desperately. He closed his eyes and fought his own tensed muscles and wished.

"Billy," Ted whispered beside him. His expression was concerned, lines of stress creasing around his eyes and prematurely aging his face. He could feel the stress rolling off of Billy's body and the intense stillness of the boy beside him was starting to make him nervous.

"No talking," one of the armed guards barked at Ted from the front of the vehicle.

Ted flinched and the others glanced toward him questioningly. He could only glance at Billy and back to them, hoping that the significance of Billy's stillness would strike them as odd. But, they weren't as familiar with Billy Kaplan as he was, so the chances were slim.

'I wish we had fought,' Billy continued to think. He didn't want to open his eyes and look out on his own bleak situation again, let alone Ted's worried face. 'I wish we had escaped when we had the chance,' Billy thought.

In the front of the van, a driver and another senior officer were staring calmly out the windshield at the dark highway lit only by their headlights. There were two other vans in the convoy, but they were seemingly unnecessary as the teenage Young Avengers had surrendered quietly to the surprise of most of the officers there. The senior office wasn't surprised, though. They were just kids, after all, and more than likely scared out of their wits.

The officer was thinking about his granddaughter, young and blond much like the Lang girl they were bringing in. He hoped that they would go easy on the children he had in the back and consider their age.

'I wish this weren't happening,' Billy wished, holding his breath and unconsciously slipping into the same process that now seemed to come so easily to him, 'I wish this stupid van would just stop!'

In the front of the van, the locks on the doors disengaged. The driver and passenger barely had any time to register this fact before the passenger side door flew open and the senior officer was thrown bodily out of the van and onto the unyielding tarmac below. The driver, startled, jerked the wheel to the left and sent the van screeching into the guard rail. The other two vehicles in the convoy screamed to a halt behind and before the van that held the Young Avengers.

There was a lot of screaming, yelling, and banging in the back of the van. The two armed guards were thrown to the floor, most of the Young Avengers kept their seats, and everyone was left confused about what had just happened after the fact.

One of the guards struggled to his feet and threw open the doors, allowing a gust of chill night wind and frantic sounds into the vehicle.

On the ground in the middle of the road laid the senior officer who was slowly struggling into a sitting position. Another office had already jumped from the van behind them and was running to his side. A few more officers were beginning to filter onto the road, some of them gravitating towards the man on the road and others moving cautiously toward the middle van.

The officer who was standing near the doors rounded on the teenagers behind him.

"What did you do!" he screamed, aiming the shout at all of the kids in the van.

They looked back at him with wild, scared eyes.

"You!" the officer turned on Billy who was busy trying to sink as far into the unyielding metal at his back as he could. "What did you do?"

The officer charged forward and grabbed Billy by the collar and yanked him to his feet, causing the other young avengers to  lean forward protectively. "I know what you can do and I know you did something," the officer yelled, shaking Billy by his collar. "Do you know how much trouble you're in already? Do you even fucking get it, kid?"

"Hey, back off!" Billy heard Teddy yell.

The officer didn't heed Teddy and continued to shake Billy by his collar. Billy tried to hold his head steady, but was starting to feel sick very quickly.

"I said to get off him!" Teddy yelled with more conviction, standing up.

"Sit down, kid!" the officer who had not yet spoken commanded, finally stepping in and raising his weapon.

"Then, tell him to let go of our friend!" Kate yelled back into his face, fearlessly standing up herself.

Billy began to squeeze his eyes shut and go still.

"Listen, kid! I don't take orders from snot-nosed criminals like you," the first guard bit out.

"Criminals! We're not criminals. We're victims of the overbearing policing of our socialist government!" Kate shot back.

"Oh, so now we have a little political activist on our hands?" the first guard asked with a smirk. Kate shot back a glare. "Well, let me tell you, princess, that our socialist government has declared you criminals and as such I can do whatever the fuck I want," the guard said, punctuating each word by giving Billy's collar a solid shake.

That is, until the part of the collar that the guard was holding fell apart in his hands.

"What the fu-" the guard began to say, staring incredulously into Billy's faintly glowing blue eyes.

"Shit," Ted whispered under his breath, before bringing his hands, still covered in their overly large metal constraints down over the back of the head of the guard who was still looking at Billy in amazement.

"Stand down!" the guard in the back yelled before Kate slammed her metal covered hands into his crotch and then down over the back of his head.

"Billy, can you get these things off of us?" Ted asked gently, as soon as both the guards were out.

Billy didn't trust his voice, but could feel his own magic shooting through his system with unexpected vigor fueled by nervous energy. Nodding, Billy closed his eyes and thought about their restraints falling away as easily as his own collar had. In seconds, he heard the sound of metal hitting the floor of the van as his companions pulled their hands and necks out of the restraints.

"Okay, listen!" Eli spoke up, shaking his own wrists to get the circulation flowing. "They're going to notice something isn't right any second now. On my count, we all scatter. Just lay low and worry about staying hidden and I'll contact you guys later. Ready?"

Billy wasn't ready at all, but nodded along with the others anyway. He felt Ted put a comforting hand around his elbow and squeeze without looking at him. The comfort of the touch helped Billy to release some of his tension in a slow exhalation of breath.

"Okay. One, two, three!" Eli yelled, already moving by the time he yelled three.

The five of them burst out of the van together: Billy, Teddy, Eli, Kate, and Cassie all shooting off in different directions to try and confuse the already reeling police officers.

Someone had already radioed for help and a helicopter was zeroing in on Eli as soon as he jumped onto the roof of a nearby apartment building and was shooting across the roofs of New York with a spotlight on him the whole way. Billy saw Kate leap off the overpass as well, but she disappeared into the darkness and he didn't see her after that. Cassie grew huge for a moment, stepped off the overpass and onto a nearby street, and then immediately shrank down into invisibility. That just left Teddy and Billy.

It only took Billy two steps before he grabbed an already charging Ted under the arms and shot off into the sky with the kind of focused speed that he had never used before. He kept pushing and pushing until they were very high and he had to focus some of the mad energy that was rushing wildly inside of him into making a small pocket of warmth around Teddy and himself before they began to grow frost on their arms and legs.

"Billy," Ted said slowly, after they had stopped to hover in some cloud cover. "Billy, are you okay?" he asked.

"Huh?" Billy grunted, more of a heavy pant than a real word.

"Because, you're kind of sparking a lot," Ted said as calmly as he could.

"Really?" Billy asked surprised. He didn't feel that he was making any more of a light show than usual, despite the way that his energy was rushing through him.

In actuality, his body was throwing off huge licks of blue light that lit up the whole night sky. He was a veritable beacon for any roving air crafts.

"Really. We should probably get out of the sky if you're going to be so, uh, bright," Ted said gently.

"Oh," Billy replied.

But, Billy really didn't know where to go or what to do. Any places he could think of to hide would only be temporary or would burden his friends or family with the task of hiding him. Billy thought for a long moment. He thought that if he could only wish hard enough, channel enough of this vibrant thrashing energy into his will, he could hide Teddy and himself away somewhere that they could never be found.

"I wish we were somewhere safe," Billy began, pulling Teddy in closer to himself.

Teddy, recognizing a spell when he heard one, reached his own large green hands up to cover Billy's comparatively smaller ones.

"I wish we were safe. I wish we were safe. I wish we were safe. I wish we were safe. I wish we were -" Billy chanted.

Teddy held his breath to try and push back the nausea that hit him every time Billy teleported him. The air shivered and twisted, colors blended and changed, and there was a fundamental weightlessness as Billy shifted their positions.

" -safe," Billy sighed, collapsing into a boneless mass as soon as the shifting stopped.

Teddy looked around wildly once the two of them hit the ground. There were tall moss covered trees all around them and a soft mattress of dried pine needles underneath them. Billy was a heavy weight against his wide back while a star speckled sky turned imperceptibly slowly overhead.

Teddy pulled Billy up into a sitting position and tried to rouse him, but it was to no avail. Ted fought back a rising wave of panic and pulled back Billy's eyelid, only to see that his eyes had rolled back in his head. Billy had never passed out after casting a spell before and Ted was worried, but knew that panicking wouldn't do either of them any good.

Wherever Billy had taken them, it had to be safe by virtue of the spell itself. The only problem was that Teddy had no idea where 'safe' was.


	2. Chapter 2

Being in the middle of the woods, in the middle of the night, with an unconscious boyfriend was not a good position to be in. Teddy had no idea where Billy's spell had taken the two of them or how far away from New York they were. He could, at least, tell that they were in a temperate climate because of the comfortable breeze and green bushy pine trees that were growing up all around them. But, otherwise, the moonlight revealed very little.

Under normal circumstances, Teddy would have stayed right where he was and waited for someone to find him. But, Billy and Ted were not under normal circumstances. The worst case scenario would be if anyone found them (aside from starving or dying from exposure). Teddy couldn't rely on any help coming, so he had to buckle down and provide the help for himself. And, for Billy.

Gently, Teddy picked up Billy and settled him in the crook of his arm. Being in his Hulkling form had its advantages and it turned out one of them was how easy it was to carry unconscious people.

Deciding not to put too much thought into it, Teddy choose a direction and just started to walk. He followed trails beat through the underbrush by animals, what he assumed were probably deer and foxes. The tracks wound between trees, over fallen logs, and at one point across a bubbling stream. Eventually, the track he was following lead him to an unpaved road.

It was rather obvious that it wasn't used often. There were tall shoots of grass and weeds coming up between the ruts dug into the ground where the tires of various vehicles must have passed. But, at least it was a road.

After a moment of indecision, Teddy turned left and started up the road, favoring the higher incline. After that, it became a long trek up an increasingly difficult incline.

Teddy hadn't thought that he would be climbing a mountain, but that certainly felt like what he was doing. Even with his super strength and in his Hulking form, he could feel his legs start to burn and the arm holding Billy start to ache. Teddy walked for hours through a steadily thickening green forest. The road became rockier and less passable as he continued to climb.

As the sky overhead was tinged a rosy color and the darkness around him began to fade into a filmy gray, Billy began to stir. It was just a twitch and a grunt, but it made some muscles between Teddy's shoulders that he hadn't realized he had knotted up in stress release.

Teddy began to worry that Billy would be waking soon, so he began to pick up the pace. He hoped to get to some kind of shelter before Billy woke up.

Luckily, Teddy didn't have to walk much farther before he came to a small clearing with a weathered looking cabin sitting slightly off center. There were small plants growing up out of the gutters and it was pretty obvious that the forest had been slowly creeping towards the house for years. The grass around the house were stuttered with tall weeds and rocky spots of dirt.

It was obviously abandoned and well on the way to dilapidation, but the windows all looked to be in place and there weren't any holes in the roof. As it was, it was still a lot more than Teddy could have hoped for.

Shifting Billy's weight on his arm, Teddy started up toward the cabin. He shrank back down to his normal size and appearance before advancing up the world weary steps onto the slowly splintering porch. Shifting Billy again, Teddy reached out and tried the front door. Unfortunately, he found it locked. But, that was nothing that a solid shake of the handle didn't fix. Inside the lock, the bolt cracked and gave. The door opened wide to let the two boys inside.

The inside of the cabin wasn't much more impressive than the outside. There was an empty hearth with a threadbare couch and recliner in front of it. There was a rug that looked as if it had been worried at by a number of rats in front of the fireplace and a table and a few chairs covered with a thick layer of dust. The roof was vaulted and festooned with spider webs.

Teddy advanced into the living area slowly, worried that the wood floor wouldn't be able to stand their combined weight. It creaked and protested, but prevailed in supporting Teddy and Billy.

The door directly across from the front door opened into a retro looking kitchen that Teddy didn't take the time to look through. He saw a lot of rust colors and hoped that the people that were there before him thought to clean out the fridge before they left, but didn't feel up to dealing with it at the moment.

Teddy tried the first door down the hall from the living room and found the bathroom, with a number of moldy black spots that worried him more than he wanted to admit. He decided to pass it up and continue down the hallway.

The next door was a small bedroom. It had a small single bed covered by a blue comforter. There were grimed pictures on the wall and a dusty dresser by the door.

Since there was only one more door at the end of the hall, Teddy tried it and found the master bedroom. It was a wide room with a huge bed covered in a dark red moth eaten coverlet. There were two large windows that looked out into the forest, though they were too grimed to see out of at that moment. There was a dresser against the far wall and a vanity table next to the door, both covered in dust.

The bed was covered in dust, as well. After a moment of consideration, Teddy decided to yank back the red coverlet to reveal the reasonably clean white comforter and sheets below. Teddy pulled the coverlet off and let it pool on the floor at the foot of the bed before settling Billy down. He pulled off his boots and his strange helmet thing before pulling the covers up over him.

Looking down at his boyfriend, Teddy found it hard not to be envious. Despite the long trek through the woods and the stagnant smell in the cabin, Billy was still in a deep sleep. The sun had only just peaked over the horizon, but he felt more tired at that moment than he could ever remember feeling.

Pulling back the blankets on the opposite side of the bed, Teddy settled himself down next to Billy. The smell of dust and stagnant air was heavy in his nose, but the soft feeling of the sheets against his weary body was more than he could resist.

Teddy was dead asleep within seconds.

\- - - - -

It felt like only seconds passed before Teddy was being slowly pulled out of his dreams by a familiar voice. He could hear someone calling his name and feel a firm touch on his upper arm, but he really didn't want to wake up. He felt like there were ten pound weights attached to his eyes, but he pulled them open anyway.

Directly across from him, Billy's face swam into view. His hair was ruffled, though that wasn't necessarily new. His mouth was pulled into a thin line and there were dark smudges of exhaustion around his eyes.

"Teddy, are you awake?" he asked nervously.

"I am now," Ted grunted, rolling over onto his back and rubbing at his eyes. "What time is it?" Teddy sighed.

"I, uh, don't know. It's still dark," Billy replied meekly.

All of a sudden, the events of the past night came rushing back to Ted. He stiffened with his arm still thrown over his face as he realized that it wasn't 'still dark', it was already the next night. The two of them must have slept for a long time, longer than Ted had ever slept. Billy alone had probably slept almost twenty-four hours in one stretch.

"Hey, how do you feel?" Ted asked, rolling over to look at Billy.

"Tired," he replied. "What happened?"

Ted took a deep breath before explaining about how they had been dropped in the woods and how Billy had passed out. Ted went on to explain that he had no idea where they were, but had been able to find a road and follow it to this cabin. And, that he believed they should be able to hide there for a little while.

Ted thought he saw Billy blush when he talked about him passing out before they even touched down in the forest, but couldn't be sure in the dim light of the room.

There was a pause after Ted stopped talking. He could feel Billy shift uncomfortably before asking, "How long was I asleep?"

"Around a full day, if you just woke up now," Ted replied. "I've never seen you pass out after a spell before. Has it ever happened before?" Ted asked gently.

He could feel Billy shake his head through the bed before answering, "No. But, I've never cast a spell like that one before."

"Do you know where we are?" Ted asked.

"No, I don't. I'm sorry," Billy replied quietly.

"Hey, it's not your fault," Ted said firmly. "If it weren't for your spell, we probably would have been caught. In fact, we're probably safer than any of the others who are hiding in the city."

"I guess that's true," Billy sighed, turning his face toward the pillow. "But, now we're stranded in the middle of nowhere. I don't know about you, but I don't know anything about nature and survival skills and stuff."

"Don't worry about it, Billy. I mean, we're Young Avengers. I'm sure we can manage!" Ted mumbled with a dry laugh.

Billy remained quiet, his face still pressed into the pillow on his side of the bed.

"Hey," Ted whispered, shuffling himself closer to Billy. "I'm really glad you're all right. You gave me a scare when you went over like that."

As close as he was, Ted was sure he saw Billy's face color as he turned to look at him. "I really am sorry about that. But, I feel okay. I just feel tired, like I'm all worn out."

"Well, it was a pretty amazing spell," Ted responded, hoping to cheer Billy up. He was glad to see Billy's face color even more. He was so easy to embarrass.

"It was really vague. I'm amazed it worked at all, to be honest," Billy mumbled.

"And, you were able to use your powers even with that collar on. Do you think it was defective or something?" Ted asked, feeling more awake.

"Uh, no. I don't think so. I think it just wasn't made for me," Billy replied, pulling his covers up over his shoulder.

"Hm? What do you mean?" Ted asked.

"Well, uh, Tommy and I are kind of special cases, I guess," Billy mumbled, shrugging further into the blankets and curling into himself a little. "I mean, we're not really mutants. Well, we're sort of mutants and whatever Mephisto is, I guess. I mean, I'm not even really sure what I am. I suppose only the Scarlet Witch really knows."

"Oh," Ted replied shortly. He could feel how uncomfortable Billy was, but wasn't sure what to say.

He could identify with a lot of what Billy was going through. They had both thought they were probably mutants, because of their unexplainable abilities. However, during the course of their membership with the Young Avengers, both of them found out that they weren't really who they thought they were. He found out that he wasn't human at all, but the child of a Kree captain and Skrull princess and Billy found out that he was really the son of the Scarlet Witch, but by very unusual means.

Teddy supposed that he was lucky that, while the process by which he discovered his true parentage was rather stressful and abrupt, at least he knew everything by the time it was all said and done. Billy still didn't understand what process the Scarlet Witch went through to become pregnant with him, who his father was, or how he came to live with the people he believed to be his parents his whole life. All he knew was that he was different. Teddy knew that must be very tough.

Ted wriggled forward more until he could press his knees and forehead against Billy.

"Hey," he said, nudging Billy.

Billy was able to keep his moping expression for only a moment before breaking out into a smile.

"Hey," he replied.

"You know, we're all alone," Ted said conspiratorially with a wiggle of his eyebrows.

Billy scoffed.

"Jeez, is that all you ever think about?" he asked, already stifling his laughter.

"I dunno. It's kind of hard to think about our respective parental issues when I'm sharing a bed with you and all you're wearing is a black leotard," Teddy responded.

Billy gasped as his face colored. "It's not a leotard," he argued.

"Really?" Teddy asked. "Then, what is it?"

"It's ..." Billy colored further. "It's not a leotard."

Ted dissolved into a fit of half suppressed laughter after that.

"Ted, seriously!" Billy protested. "Aren't you worried? Our situation is pretty, uh. Well, it's not dire, but it's still serious."

Ted reached over to pull Billy towards him. He pressed his lips against his for a breath moment, before pulling away again with a smile on his face.

"I am worried. But, I'm more glad that you and I together and safe than I am worried," he replied.

Billy seemed to quiet after that.

"You're right," he smiled. "But, you wear me out," he sighed.

Ted laughed again, but that was about all that was said.

It was still dark in the room, with only the light of the moon and stars filtering through the dirty windows and only the sound of their quiet murmurs in the dark. It didn't take them long to fall asleep again, comfortable in the feeling of the other's breath across their face and the warmth shared between their bodies.


	3. Chapter 3

The next day dawned muggy and close. There was a haze in the air and bugs seemed to come alive in damp atmosphere. Even in the confines of their broken down cabin, Billy and Teddy woke up sweaty and uncomfortable. There was a sheen of sweat already coating them before they were awake and any skin that was touching while they slept had to be peeled apart after waking up.

It was a slow process for the two of them to crawl out of the stale sheets and into the hot air of the cabin. Billy was eventually roused enough to get up and struggle with a window until he was able to jerk it up and let some fresh air into the room. The air outside wasn't much cooler than the air inside their room, but at least it was moving a little.

"So," Teddy asked from the bed. "What do you want to do today?"

"Nothing," Billy sighed, resting his chin on the window sill and enjoying the relatively cool breeze that brushed against his face. "Not get arrested, I guess."

"You can't still be tired," Ted responded in amazement.

"Well, no. Not really," Billy shrugged. In actuality, he was still very tired. His limbs felt heavy and his thoughts were still fuzzy. He was finding it hard to focus and could feel the edges of a headache pounding on the inside of his skull, but was relieved to find that Ted's face only looked marginally more focused than he was.

Billy thought about their situation for a long moment while Ted languished in bed. They were fairly well hidden, where ever they were. However, even though the cabin looked abandoned, that didn't necessarily mean it was. If the real owners came back, or even just some other squatters like them, they would probably be caught almost immediately. Billy wasn't sure if he could pull off a spell like the one he had yesterday again.

"We should probably get out of our suits," Billy said slowly. " If someone does stumble across us, it'll be pretty easy to figure out who we are as long as we're wearing them."

"That's a good point," Ted replied, stifling a yawn. "Let's be nudists."

Billy snorted, sparing Ted a disbelieving glance. "We're not walking around nude. We're not crazy hippies."

"No," Ted replied. "But, we could pretend to be. Plus, it would be cooler than wearing clothes," Ted muttered in disgust.

Billy nudged Ted as he walked by him to the only dresser in the room. "You're such a pragmatist."

"Always," Ted yawned as he rolled out of the bed and after Billy.

Pulling open the top drawer, Billy found an assortment of male and female underwear. He colored slightly while looking at the right side of the drawer. It was filled with large lacy panties, rolled up socks, and large padded braziers.

Ted didn't miss Billy's reaction to the more womanly underclothing within.

"Aw, gross," he whispered in an exaggerated tone. Billy gave him another shove and pulled a handful of boxers and socks out of the drawer and threw them on the bed.

The second drawer was all women's shirts and jeans. They were mostly outdoorsy clothing, plaid shirts, t-shirts, and tank tops. The third drawer was men's shirts and jeans, mostly in the same line as the women's clothing.

Billy pulled a few of the plaid shirts out of the drawer. They were obviously pretty big for him, the cloth feeling expansive in his hands, but he thought they might fit Ted's wider shoulders. The jeans were equally big, especially around the waist. Billy wasn't sure if either of them could fit into those. There were a few belts in the drawer, but they would have to poke holes in them if they wanted to use them.

Billy looked up at Ted with a doubtful expression.

"Well," Ted shrugged. "Let's try them on."

Billy hesitated for a moment before he peeled off his not-leotard with his back to Ted and picked up a pair of boxers and jeans. Ted did his best to be respectful of his boyfriend's prudish privacy, but still ended up getting a nice eyeful of his pert backside before he pulled the jeans up over them.

Billy turned back to Ted with a mournful expression.

"There's no way," he said, holding up the pants with both hands. There was nearly ten or twenty inches of extra space in those pants that Billy wasn't going to fill with his narrow hips.

"Well, the shirts fit me okay," Ted responded, shrugging his shoulders. "I could just wear the boots and pants that come with my costume, I guess. They wouldn't be that noticeable."

Ted scratched his ear while he stared at Billy and tried to think of some kind of solution, other than nudity, to his pants problem. "Hey, why don't you try the pants in the second drawer. Maybe you can fit into those?" Ted asked after thinking for a moment.

Billy shot him a withering glance.

"What?" Ted asked.

"Those are women's pants," Billy responded firmly.

"So? Who's gonna know? I think it'd be hot," Ted replied, though he wasn't able to keep the smile from his face as he said it.

"I'd know! You'd know!" Billy exclaimed desperately, not missing the fun that Ted was having at his expense.

"Come on, Billy. You can't run around without pants. That is, unless you want to do the whole nudist thing?" Ted said hopefully.

Billy worried at his bottom lip for a while. He didn't like to talk about, but he had always been awfully self-conscious. He knew in his heart of hearts that Ted would never judge him for something as silly as pants, but it was still hard to break himself of always doubting. It took another long moment, but Billy finally gave in.

"Fine," he sighed. "I'll try them. But, don't look until I tell you!" Billy exclaimed.

"Okay," Ted laughed, "whatever you say."

Ted turned around and gave Billy his privacy as he pulled on the pants from the second drawer. He had to abandon the dream of using the boxers all together, since the waist bands were much too stretched out to be useful. The pants were definitely tighter than what he usually wore. They were also definitely women's pants. Billy had to grab the pants around his thighs and yank them down so that they weren't so tight in the crotch, but he still worried over the safety of his family jewels.

"Okay," Billy said unsteadily. "You can look. But, you better not laugh," he warned.

Teddy turned around and gave Billy an appraising once over. Billy looked so amazingly good in the pants. It seriously tested Ted's patience to not lead Billy off back to bed. He was thin and lean, with narrow hips and delicate features. The tighter pants showed off his legs almost as well as his suit did. The uncertain way that his shoulders were bowed his eyebrows pulled in just made him want whisk him off his feet all the more.

Ted found himself wondering at how lucky he was that Billy was his. He was cute, smart, strong, and looked amazing in girl pants. He knew that Billy usually wore baggy clothes all the time and had never really asked him why. He knew that Billy had been bullied at his school and had always figured that the baggy clothes were his attempt to blend into the background. But, seeing how nice Billy could look in trendier clothes made him want to push him to try dressing up more. He wanted everyone else to see how great Billy could look.

"You look really good, Billy. You should wear pants like this more often," Ted said in as serious a voice as he could muster.

"Well," Billy responded slowly, not really sure what to say. "At least they fit. So, we can stop the fashion show, right?"

Teddy laughed. Billy's discomfort was rather obvious, so he threw him one of the button down shirts and nodded his agreement.

"Yeah! Let's see what we can get done. I thought that maybe one of us could go look for water and the other could see if they could start to clean up the cabin."

"Let me guess. You want me to clean up the cabin, because I'm the one in girl pants," Billy droned.

Ted suppressed a laugh. "No, though I like your thinking. I figured your spells would be more helpful when it comes to finding water. And, that I could go through the kitchen and see if there's any canned food or if we'll have to scare something up."

Billy nodded enthusiastically at Ted's response. "Okay, I can do that," he said.

"Good," Ted smiled.

\-----

Billy's spell to find water manifested in a stranger way than he had first expected. After casting his spell ("I need to find water"), a thin blue light appeared in front of him. At first, Billy was rather disappointed and thought that his spell had failed somehow. What in the world was he going to do with a floating blue light? But, after some experimentation, Billy found that the light would grow stronger and dimmer depending on what direction he turned.

Billy tamely played hot / cold with his spell for nearly an hour. The spell lead him further uphill from their cabin. There were many times when he couldn't advance because of fallen trees or rocky outcroppings. These detours slowed down the process, but he was eventually able to find his way to a babbling spring. The water gushed up from the ground and traveled down the mountain, dropping over small falls and gathering in little pools before continuing its journey towards the valley floor. As he approached, the blue light floated off in front of him, until it could sink down into the cool water and disappear.

Billy had brought two large empty jugs that he had found behind the cabin with him and immediately dipped them both into the cool water. Despite the day being unusually close for that time of year, the water was almost freezing. When Billy pulled his hands out of the water, they were bright pink and stung a little.

The water dancing in the jugs was clear and bright without a touch of visible impurities. Billy smiled a little as he watched the morning light shine through the containers. He had drank plenty of bottled water that touted itself as spring water in his life, but this would be his first chance to taste something he knew definitively was spring water.

Sitting one of the gallon containers down, Billy brought the other one to his lips and took an experimental drink. The water splashed against his tongue and tasted surprisingly sharp and fresh. It definitely tasted distinctly different than any water he had drank before. He wasn't sure what it was, but it reminded him of caves and the deep earth.

Billy took a few more deep drinks, suddenly finding himself unbearably thirsty, before refilling the jug and popping the cap back on top.

The trek down the mountain didn't take nearly as long. Hiking downhill was much easier going. Also, Billy now knew what obstacles to avoid and no longer had to improvise around the various fallen trees and rocks along the mountain.

By the time he was back at the cabin, the sun had risen high in the sky. High enough that Billy thought it was probably noon.

He entered through the back door that brought him into the kitchen and called for Ted, who came out of a small wooden door that Billy hadn't realized was there before.

"Hey," he said, "how'd it go?"

"Great!" Billy exclaimed, holding up the two gallon containers of water. "There's a spring up the mountain and it runs all the way down to the valley, I think. We shouldn't have any trouble with water."

"Good!" Ted smiled. "I might have even better news."

"Oh?" Billy questioned, raising an eyebrow and sitting the two gallon jugs on the little kitchen table. His arms were killing him.

"Yeah, come and see," Ted responded, disappearing back into the small door he had come out of.

Billy followed him curiously, to find that the small door actually opened into a pantry. It was lined with dusty boxes and cans from floor to ceiling. There was a door built into the floor that was thrown open to reveal a set of steps trailing down into darkness.

"Wow," Billy murmured. "Is any of this stuff still good?" he asked.

"Some of it," Teddy said. "There's a lot of canned food and pretty much all of that is good. The stuff in boxes is probably stale, but wouldn't kill us to eat. There's also a cooler in the ground cellar, but it was filled with meat and has pretty much become a toxic wasteland of mold. I sealed it up with duct tape after discovering that. There's also a bunch of potatoes, carrots, and other root vegetables down there that are still good."

"That's amazing! So, we have food and water. At least, we can survive up here for a while," Billy said, relieved. He hadn't wanted to think about having to teleport again or hunting forest animals to stave off starving.

"I also found this," Ted said, stooping down and picking up a small red radio. It had a strap big enough to circle around Ted's wrist, a long metallic antenna, a single speaker, and a number of knobs and switches. When Ted threw a switch, a crackling voice started to spit out news. "We shouldn't use it too often. I could only find one pack of batteries. But, I thought that this way, if people come to their senses and finally repeal the act, at least we'll know about it.

Billy ran up to Ted and threw his arms around his shoulders, pressing his lips against his cheek.

"You were totally right. Your news was way better," Billy said seriously, hope already shining in his chest..

Ted barked out a laugh before diving in to steal a kiss himself. Billy's mouth was warm and soft against his. He put his arms around his waist and took solace in the solid feeling of Billy's heartbeat thrumming through him.

After a moment, Ted pulled away and looked into Billy's face with a searching expression.

"So," he said. "Do you think this will work?"

"Yeah," Billy said after a moment. "Yeah, I think so."


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry that it took so long to post this chapter. Work got awfully busy last week and this week it was rather slow. But, because we were slow a bunch of extra projects were heaped on us.
> 
> My apologies! I beg your forgiveness with steamy sex scenes.

    For a number of days after Billy and Teddy arrived at the abandoned cabin, the weather continued to build in heat and moisture. The two boys started to resort to cutting off jeans (Teddy eventually breaking down and using the over sized jeans in the drawer cinched with a piece of twine). They ended up keeping all the windows open to encourage any breeze to come inside and spent a lot of time by the stream that ran down the mountain.  
    As summer storms tend to do, the hot weather eventually broke and rain came down from the sky with a crack of lightning and a bark of thunder. The rain started early one lazy day and continued to keep the boys inside for all of their daytime hours.  
    Most of the indoor cleaning was done. There were no longer cobwebs clinging to every corner or dust laying in thick layers on the furniture. The floors were clean, even if they weren't even. The kitchen was well-scrubbed, even if there was still a little rust here and there.  
    Listening to the monotonous crackling sounds of the radio rattle off the inches of rain in unfamiliar counties did nothing to break the boredom that began to settle heavily on the two young avengers. By what the radio had said was just two o'clock in the afternoon and after four games of dominos, Billy and Teddy had degraded to the point of staring at each other from opposite ends of the couch with exasperated expressions.  
    "I wonder what people did back in the days before TV," Billy mumbled.  
    "Well, I suppose they would play games that were not as boring as dominos, talk about corn and wheat, sing happy songs, sew booties. I have no idea," Teddy groaned.  
    "Do you want to go through the closet again?" Billy asked with a wry twist of his mouth.  
    He was referring to the small closet in the smaller bedroom where they had found the box of dominos. Billy and Teddy had also seen a twister pad (with no spinner), a game of Thirteen Dead End Drive that was missing half the pieces, and a beat up box of Girl Talk that they hadn't even bothered to touch. In the end, they had choose the safest bet; a small box filled with dominos. But, they had quickly lost all excitement and engagement in th game.  
    "Not particularly," Ted replied. "Do you want to try cleaning the cabinets in the kitchen?"  
    Billy pulled a face. They had cleared out the inside of the cabinets and made sure there wasn't any bad food in them and had washed some of the pots and pans they meant to use, but the thought of actually scrubbing down the inside of the cabinets was not very attractive to him.  
    "Not particularly," Billy replied.  
    Ted moaned and pushed his face into the musty cushions of the couch. "Ugh. I have no idea what to do, then."  
    Billy sighed in agreement, sliding forward on the couch until his knees knocked against Teddy's.  
    They sat that way, lounging in their own inactive torment, until an idea seemed to strike Teddy. He jerked up, startling Billy into sitting up as well.  
    "Wait! Wait. I think I have an idea," Ted said, holding up his hands as if Billy was about to run off somewhere.  
    Billy cocked a doubtful eyebrow his way, but dutifully waited for the idea to come out.  
    "Come with me," Ted said instead, grabbing Billy by the wrist and bouncing up off the couch with more energy than he had displayed all day.  
    "Why? What are we doing?" Billy asked, allowing himself to be dragged along behind Ted as he pulled him down the hall.  
    "Nothing. Something. You'll see," Ted rambled, pushing open the door to the big bedroom that they had just begun to think of as theirs.  
    "I think that's it's understandable if I'm a little doubtful about this idea," Billy mumbled as Ted padded toward the bed and plopped down, pulling Billy down beside him.  
    "Don't be doubtful. It's a good idea," Ted smiled, leaning in to press a chaste kiss to the side of Billy's mouth.  
    Billy colored and rubbed at the spot that Ted had kissed. "What is this idea?" Billy asked slowly.  
    "I thought we could hang out in here and see what happens," Ted responded earnestly.  
    Billy gave him another long doubtful look. "I think I see where you're going with this."  
    "It's no pressure, okay? But, we never got to be alone together before this and, I thought..." Teddy trailed off and gave Billy a significant look and a shrug. "Why not make the best of a bad situation?"  
    Billy turned away for a moment, his hand wandering up to rub at the back of his neck while he wavered. He knew that Teddy and himself had been together for a long time (longer than anyone else they knew their age), but he had always been nervous when it came to the physical end of their relationship. They didn't have a lot of privacy at either of their homes to afford much intimacy, but when they were alone together Billy would feel his stomach start to do backflips and would begin to worry that he was going to do something stupid and mess everything up. For possibly the millionth time, he tried to tell himself that Ted would never make fun of him or stop liking him just because he messed up in bed, but it still didn't get rid of the butterflies.  
    "No pressure, right?" Billy croaked, looking back at Ted.  
    Ted smiled gently and nodded, before letting himself fall back onto the bed.  
    "No pressure," he said, looking at the ceiling. "Why don't we talk about something to take the pressure off?"  
    Billy cautiously stretched out on his side beside Ted, his head propped up on his hand. "Like what?" he asked.  
    "I don't know," Teddy  said, turning to look at Billy. "Um, did you date anyone before me?" he asked with a teasing smile.  
    "You know I didn't," Billy said with a twist of his mouth. "What about you?"  
    "Hum," Teddy thought. Billy's eyebrows rose. "There was this one guy. He was attractive or whatever. But, he had the personality of a stop sign." Billy snorted a little trying to hold in his laugh. "Obviously, it didn't last very long. But, that was it for me."  
    "Is my personality better?" Billy asked after he had his giggles under control.  
    "Much better," Ted responded.  
    "Good," Billy chirped, before diving down for a kiss.  
    He meant for it to be a small kiss, chaste and cheerful, but Teddy caught the back of his head and held him still while he stretched up to meet him. Ted's mouth was warm and nimble against his lips and made Billy's stomach begin to flutter. Teddy gave the back of Billy's neck a firm squeeze before letting him go.  
    "You should reward me more often," he laughed.  
    Billy huffed a sigh, but smiled down at Ted. "You're incorrigible, you know?"  
    "I know," Ted replied.  
    "This kind of stuff makes me really nervous," Billy admitted to Ted's collar bone, his head dipping a little under his embarassment.  
    "I know. But, that's why there's no pressure," Ted responded gently.  
    "But, there is pressure!" Billy responded emphatically.  
    Ted tilted his head, his eyebrows furrowing in confusion.  
    "I mean, I put pressure on myself. I don't want you to think I don't like you that way or something, because I do! I just, ah, when I think about it I always worry that I'm going to mess it up somehow."  
    "Don't worry about it," Ted laughed. "I've never gone all the way before either. I'm just as likely to get a charlie horse and completely ruin the mood as you are."  
    Billy smiled a small smile. "You're right. I know you are. I just have to convince my stomach of that."  
    "Oh? Let me try. Come here," Ted murmured, pulling Billy back to him.  
    Billy allowed himself to be pulled down for another kiss and this one was noticeably more intense than the last. Ted's arm snaked around his back and pressed him close. Ted's other hand moved to Billy's face, then to his hair, and finally to the back of his neck where each kneading movement sent sparks down his spine. Ted's mouth moved against his with more confidence than Billy was able to muster.  
    After a few moments of feeling Billy tremble against him, Ted decided to suck Billy's lower lip into his mouth. Billy moaned low in his throat and felt a shiver tremble through his whole body at the surprise.  
    Ted didn't let up. He pressed his lips against Billy's a few more times before licking his bottom lip encouragingly. Intuitively, Billy opened his mouth slightly and invited Ted inside. Ted ran his tongue along Billy's teeth and tasted onions over everything else (they had made sandwiches for lunch and Billy loved onions). Billy was  breathing hard and grasping desperately at Ted's shoulders as he pressed his tongue forward to tangle with Ted's. The feeling of something as alien as someone else's tongue in his mouth sent a shiver of excitement through Billy's whole body.  
    From there it got a little messy (mostly for Ted, since he was on the bottom), but it did the trick of getting Billy into the moment and getting rid of his butterflies. From the way that Billy's hips were twitching against Ted's, he felt that Billy wasn't feeling as self-conscious as he had before.  
    The two broke apart for air and stared at each other for a long moment, panting and flushed, before Ted finally broke the silence.  
    "Fuck. Can we keep going?" he asked breathlessly.  
    "Yes, please," Billy panted, pushing himself off of Ted so that he could desperately yank his shirt up over his head.  
    Ted barely spared Billy a glance as he did the same before turning to his (extremely painfully tight, jeez  why did he ever think they were a good idea) pants and popped open the button. Billy was already shimmying out of his cut off shorts and back on top of Teddy before he could get his pants down past his thighs.  
    "Hey," Ted breathed, still struggling to catch his breath. The sight of Billy kneeling nude above him wasn't helping matters.  
    "Hey," Billy replied, a nervous laugh following shortly afterwards.  
    He didn't stick around for conversation, however. Leaning forward, Billy pressed his mouth against Ted's in a slower much more languid kiss. Ted let Billy lead and savored every moment of it. Billy teased, bit, licked, and panted his way into Ted's mouth until he was rather sure that all that was left of him was puddle in the middle of the mattress.  
    "Billy," Ted murmured against Billy's mouth, his hands already kneading Billy's ass, trying to communicate his needs. "Billy, I can't. Wait," Ted groaned.  
    Billy pulled back slightly. The breath of cool air that rushed between them when he pulled away made Ted aware of a wet spot that Billy had left in the middle of his stomach. Ted had to bite back a groan at the feeling.  
    Billy's pupils were dilated and he looked thoroughly debauched. His lips were swollen and the same pink as his cheeks. His eyes were unfocused and his breathing was heavy. No wonder that they could never do this at his or Billy's home, he was sure their expressions would have given them away the moment their parent's saw them.  
    "What should I do?" Billy asked helplessly.  
    Ted swallowed over the dry lump in his throat.  
    "Could you let me up?" he asked.  
    Billy cautiously crawled off of Ted to sit down beside him with his knees pulled up in front of him. Ted kicked off the remainder of his pants before sitting up and facing Billy with determination.  
    "Come here," he said with a smile.  
    Billy smiled back and crawled into Teddy's lap. Ted encouraged Billy to move forward until he could press the heads of their dicks together, sending a shiver through both of them at the contact. Both of their heads were weeping and slid against each other.  
    "Good. That's good," Teddy breathed, pulling Billy in for a lingering kiss and guiding his hand down to grasp both of them together.  
    Ted covered Billy's hand with his own and began to pump. He heard himself gasp and felt Billy twitch at the friction between their already heated and sensitive flesh. Ted leaned forward and pressed his mouth to Billy's neck and felt Billy exhale between his teeth. He began to bite and suck on the at every inch of flesh he could reach. Billy leaned his forehead against Ted's shoulder and panted, trying his best to focus on keeping his hand moving and the friction building.  
    Ted felt Billy tense his whole body before he heard the soft groans that signaled his approach to the end. Ted bit down on Billy's shoulder hard and felt his own stomach muscles begin to convulse. He wanted to last longer, wanted their time together to be less hurried and desperate, but he wasn't able to calm his quaking needs long enough to do so.  
    Billy came two or three pumps before he did. They slumped against each other; boneless, sticky, and completely out of breath.  
    "That ... That was amazing," Billy mumbled.  
    Ted struggled out a laugh. "My sentiments exactly."  
    "Why didn't we do this before?" Billy asked Ted's shoulder.  
    "Because we have strong moral values and overbearing parents," Ted replied, slowly separating himself from Billy. "If we don't clean off soon, we'll get stuck together."  
    "That sounds okay," Billy sighed, flopping backwards onto the mattress.  
    His legs trembling only a little bit, Ted toddled out of the bedroom and to the bathroom to grab a stale towel. He threw an extra towel at Billy as he came back and plopped down on the bed beside him.  
    "Sorry we didn't go all the way," Billy muttered into his towel after he had wiped off most of the cum, sweat and spit.  
    Ted wearily waved a hand in the air, as if to wave the apology away. "We don't have any of the stuff we'd need to do that here. I should appologize for that being so quick. I wanted to take my time, but someone was being awfully forward. Besides, we have our whole lives to do this stuff, right? "  
    Billy laughed, but his exhaustion was already seeping into his voice. "You're right. Just being close like this is nice," he sighed, rolling over towards Ted.  
    "Hum," Ted hummed, rolling over to face Billy before falling into a deep and dreamless sleep.


End file.
